Angela McCarthy is professor of Scottish and Irish history and director of the Centre for Global Migrations at the University of Otago.
She is currently examining the experiences in Dunedin of those from Cambodian and Syrian refugee backgrounds and, with colleagues in the United Kingdom, is researching gravestones throughout the British world.
What was the best birthday present you ever received, and why?
In recent years, my Evolve bracelet with charms representing Kiwi places and objects, because it reminds me of home when I'm away from it.
What smell do you find irresistible?
A home-cooked roast dinner, popcorn at the cinema on Sundays and the aroma from the Greggs coffee factory.
If you were going to an island and could take only three things, what would they be and why?
I would take my iPod with the music of Elvis and Neil Diamond (my childhood idols) plus a vast array of tracks from the 1960s and 1970s; a camera to capture the surrounds; and several good books.
What's something only your family knows about you?
My experience of death.
What is one strong childhood memory?
The overwhelming joy of our first German shepherd managing to find her way home after an absence of several months having been held against her will (her collar had several links from a chain, from which she had clearly broken free).
